Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Who's rocking an M1 still and how's it holding up for you?
- Thread starter FlyingTexan
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Like several others here, my daily driver is an M1-Max equipped Mac Studio running Monterey. It is "stupidly fast" already and at present at least, I feel no need to upgrade either the hardware or the software. It is stable, fast, does everything I need it to ... why upgrade?
Along similar lines, there's a good case for not upgrading too early because while the OS might be tight with the hardware, the same can't be said for 3rd party programs. I'm pretty sure there's something running my battery down prematurely because after a day of running VMs and developer tools, I can leave my M4 Pro alone to do nothing and the battery will drain at the rate of 40% an hour!
I thought I had a useful background process running, but after running into this several times I'm pretty sure there's nothing purposeful eating up all the power. Activity Monitor looks pretty quiet except for energy. There's stuff logging lots of power consumption even though the processors or memory aren't being stressed.
Once I restart, everything goes back to normal and I have all day power again. I'm sure this'll get worked out, but running into issues like this is one of the reasons why I normally take my sweet time to upgrade if I'm not suffering.
Original M1 MBA 16/1TB model from Nov 2020, still has 97% battery health. Won’t need to upgrade unless macOS requires it or some third party app or when anything above 16GB RAM becomes the entry level. By my measure I should be good til 2030 or even 2032.
I do photography, web design etc and it still holds up well. The investment has paid-off well!
I do photography, web design etc and it still holds up well. The investment has paid-off well!
Last edited:
16" M1 Max with 32GB RAM/2TB here - I'm a software developer doing iOS, Android and full stack development and am still absolutely happy with this machine. Sure, some stuff might be quote a bit faster with M4 especially but so far I don't feel any problems in my workflows and the machine still feels and looks great. Will probably upgrade in 2 years when they actually make a bigger change to the display although I hope they don't strive too much for thinness with a new design and sacrifice performance or run into thermal constraints again.
M1 Pro 14” here. For: Logic Pro, occasional photo editing, mostly for writing, watching videos (I’m doing documentaries) and surfing the web. Still amazing as on day 1.
Had they released a new OLED/redesigned Mac I might be tempted to upgrade. But other than a new bright screen with matte option for working outdoors I have yet to see any reason to swap my old friend for M4. Mainly because I know we have to part our ways when Apple will release a redesigned M6.
Had they released a new OLED/redesigned Mac I might be tempted to upgrade. But other than a new bright screen with matte option for working outdoors I have yet to see any reason to swap my old friend for M4. Mainly because I know we have to part our ways when Apple will release a redesigned M6.
I'm very happy with my M1 Air (16GB). I use it for coding (go, python, js), some docker and light Linux VMs (Kali/Parrot), occasional gaming (I just finished Stray, and I highly recommend the game!), and the usual "office usage". I already considered upgrading several times (starting with M3), but I can't find a reason, as the machine is still a beast for everything I do. Yes, code compilation might be slightly faster on a newer machine, but the build times are still excellent (most projects are built within seconds), and the newer Airs are bulkier/heavier.
I am running a 2020 M1 MBA base model with 8Gb Ram and it runs everything I expect.
Virtually never slows unless I am using VMWare Fusion and emulating W11 which I need to occasionally do as part of my job as one of my colleagues insisting using Publisher!
Other than that it never misses a beat. Its on 95% battery health and its holding up well, much like the 2011 MacBook Pro it replaced back in 2020.
Virtually never slows unless I am using VMWare Fusion and emulating W11 which I need to occasionally do as part of my job as one of my colleagues insisting using Publisher!
Other than that it never misses a beat. Its on 95% battery health and its holding up well, much like the 2011 MacBook Pro it replaced back in 2020.
Just upgrade from a MacBook Air M1 with 8GB to a MacBook Pro M4 with 16GB. The extra memory allows more head space with larger files.
What do you actually notice when the RAM fills up? Is it slower app switching, stuttering, slower loading times? Curious about the exact slowdowns you’re seeing.
Not a Mac user (full time Linux user), but I've seen how the M1 runs. They are fast and power efficient; in addition, the M2/M3/M4 models have a newer CPU, but not really any big physical changes or new features to be like "Wow I could really use that new feature!". Unless I got an M1 with 8GB and found it wasn't enough RAM I would not feel the need to upgrade.
(Incidentally, I avoid non-expandable systems for this very reason..... if I need more RAM or storage, I can add it. It can seriously extend the life of a system, without having to spend the big bucks to "pre buy" as much RAM as you think you may ever need down the road.)
I've run Linux on an ARM system (a Chromebook with a Tegra K1 quad-core in it) and the performance was good and battery life incredible. Unfortunately it had "low end Chromebook" build quality so after 18 months the battery went bad, the power connector started acting up, the keyboard started misbehaving, the trackpad sunk into the case and the case started getting like stress fractures all over it. All within about 2 weeks. On that basis, I would be tempted to pick up a used M1 and run Asahi Linux on it (depsite the being non-expandable) if I found one at a good price (in general, I'm not soliciting offers here!)
(Incidentally, I avoid non-expandable systems for this very reason..... if I need more RAM or storage, I can add it. It can seriously extend the life of a system, without having to spend the big bucks to "pre buy" as much RAM as you think you may ever need down the road.)
I've run Linux on an ARM system (a Chromebook with a Tegra K1 quad-core in it) and the performance was good and battery life incredible. Unfortunately it had "low end Chromebook" build quality so after 18 months the battery went bad, the power connector started acting up, the keyboard started misbehaving, the trackpad sunk into the case and the case started getting like stress fractures all over it. All within about 2 weeks. On that basis, I would be tempted to pick up a used M1 and run Asahi Linux on it (depsite the being non-expandable) if I found one at a good price (in general, I'm not soliciting offers here!)
Last edited:
LOL, don't worry, they'll eventually find ways to consume all available resources! Not just the OS, but third-party software too. It really never fails.
I did exactly the same thing.
If I had bought the M1 MBA with 16 GB RAM, I’d still be using it and wouldn’t really think of upgrading. The RAM was the bottleneck. But it was a tunnel-sized one. I’m the sort of person who’s working on a 50+ layer file in Photoshop + has 40 tabs in two browsers open + Pages + Messenger + Signal + Photos + Music etc., and I never felt that the 8GB M1 Air was slow. 16 GB allows me to run Stable Diffusion with SDXL models and 8 GB didn’t, so that makes a big difference, so does the battery life, but if I could have upgraded RAM on that M1 Air I would have done that instead and spent the rest on a trip to Scotland.
When memory fills up the spinning wheel would come up. It only happens with large files.
Yeah I'm still on my 14" M1 Max - actually wish I went with Pro instead which would have last even longer on battery while I probably wouldn't notice the speed difference.
These are very expensive so I'll probably stick to M1 until something actually significant change in either the design or technology inside, as it's still more than good enough for me.
These are very expensive so I'll probably stick to M1 until something actually significant change in either the design or technology inside, as it's still more than good enough for me.
I'm on a MBP 14" with M1 Max, 64GB. I'm happy with it, although some of the CAD stuff I've been doing recently has made me wish for more cores and faster ones. I'd say I'll make it to the M6 generation without sweating too many bullets. That's right about when my budget is planned anyway.
Just returned my M4 Max MBP16. So, I am back to my M1 Max MBP16 for use with Davinci Resolve Studio. The M4 Max was a wonderful machine (very much liked the nano texture display) and certainly much faster than the M1 Max but, I felt it was getting too hot and I was consuming the battery very quickly--maybe this will be rectified with the M5Max. Currently, I am waiting for Apple to release the M4 Ultra Studio. I believe I have gotten to the point where I am beyond what any laptop can deliver.
Don
Yes, optimization of third-party software is definitely a factor and a restart rectifying unusual power drain is a tell-tale sign. I see this while developing and applying self-imposed discipline of using Instruments to find and correct inefficient code. This is an individual dev choice so I can see energy impact becoming a bigger a factor as user app mix expands beyond Apple and similarly ecologically motivated developers.
Yes, everything still happens...eventually, but in extreme situations it's like walking in water. It rarely happens, and it's because I leave too much clutter. I could have like three browsers open (several other apps), maybe 100+ tabs open in total, one browser downloading 8 videos, and another browser streaming a video. So when I do something new, I think the RAM swap happens and that's what causing the slowness. But I know I'm really pushing the 8GB this way, so I'm not complaining, just saying I should have bought more RAM. If I open a tab for later, and keep doing that, eventually I should just bookmark rather than using tabs as bookmarks. When I do cmd+shift+D and bookmark all the tabs into a folder for later and close that window, things speed back up. So, no complaints, but just describing what happens given my habits. 16GB would solve everything. Because I don't use video editing apps or be playing games when these situations happen. My next Mac will have AT LEAST 16GB, but I'll see if I'll get more. I can afford anything I want with this range of prices, but I don't like switching computers -- it's a chore -- so I might just be more future proof in the next one.
16” MBP M1 Max and starting show a little roughness but overall, great machine!
HOWEVER — I’m one of those people that have it clamshell mode 99% of the time. So tempted to get an M4 Pro Mac mini cause I just don’t need a laptop. It probably gonna wait for m5 series and maybe get a studio instead. We’ll see what happens
Anybody else a clamshell power user?
HOWEVER — I’m one of those people that have it clamshell mode 99% of the time. So tempted to get an M4 Pro Mac mini cause I just don’t need a laptop. It probably gonna wait for m5 series and maybe get a studio instead. We’ll see what happens
Anybody else a clamshell power user?
Still rocking a MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. I would like 32GB or more of RAM. 2TB would be more comfortable than 1TB for my needs. I'm thinking that I ought to move to the binned Mx Pro variant. I don't think I need the full unbinned Mx Pro. I definitely don't need Max, especially on a laptop where I pay a thermal and battery penalty for the privilege. But, I'm not hurting for any of those things just yet. I know I will want those things. But, there's nothing that is making those urgent.